The 41-year-old musician weighed in at over 500lbs in December 2024 and has since dropped 275lbs as he became a Men's Health cover star by January 2026.
The rapper, whose real name is Jason DeFord, spoke candidly about his weight-loss journey and how obesity had impacted his life.
“I'm loving my body,” he told the outlet. “This is a whole new thing for me, y'all, I've been imprisoned to a fat suit for 30-something years.
“You know, I was thinking, when I was 500-something pounds and walking a 40-minute mile, probably, I was screaming [that] I was going to be on the cover Men's Health. And, even to me, as wild as I think, and big of a dreamer as I am, that was pretty ambitious.”
While Jelly Roll used the traditional methods of shedding the pounds such as exercising regularly and implementing a balanced diet, he also found success with a drug known as Metformin.
According to the NHS, metformin is a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes, while it can also be used for those said to be at high risk of developing the condition.
The drug works by lowering blood sugar levels by improving the way your body handles insulin.
It's worth noting metformin is not approved solely for weight loss purposes.
Research into the drug continues, with experts looking into how it could help lower the risk of cancer for people who have type-2 diabetes.
While not everyone will get symptoms from taking the drug, some will experience potential nausea, diarrhoea, stomach ache and sometimes a loss of appetite.
Metformin is unlike a lot of other diabetes as it does not cause weight gain.
It's advised to take metformin with a meal to reduce the potential side effects.
The musician revealed to Men's Health how he's insulin levels were 'super high', leading to him taking the medication.
Danese Raxroad, a nurse practitioner who worked with DeFord, told Men's Health: "Insulin is designed to help glucose enter the cell. When you have an excessive amount of insulin, it forces your body to store fat.
"So switching those receptors and switching what Jelly’s body was signaling with insulin helped him rapidly adjust his insulin resistance. I wasn’t doing a big science experiment. It was just meal timing and eating real foods."
Topics: Weight loss, Health, Music, Celebrity, Drugs
